Phony e-mails say Gingrich forced abortion on ex

'I think frankly those folks, if you can find out who they are, should be prosecuted'

(CBS NEWS) — Newt Gingrich's campaign says a press release that appears to come the campaign "regarding reports that he forced ex-wife Marianne Gingrich to terminate a pregnancy" is a fake.

The fake press release, which you can see above, came from an email address in which the "1" in 2012 is replaced by what appears to be a lower-case "L." A search of an online web registry shows that someone registered "newt20l2.org" (with the lowercase L) today. Their name was withheld.

The fake release, in which Gingrich is quoted as saying "I have made mistakes in my life. This was one of them," comes on the heels of a fake CNN Breaking News alert sent overnight to Republicans in South Carolina, which holds its primary tomorrow. The false email claimed that "[a] source close to Marianne Gingrich tells CNN that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich forced her to abort a pregnancy conceived during the affair that preceeded her marriage to Gingrich."